We are on the second night of sleep training our 9.5 month old, who has never fallen asleep on his own in his crib, wakes up about four times a night and has been cosleeping with us (not by choice!) for the second half of the night for the past three months. We are using a combo plan that we came up with with our Isis consult last week. It's like a timed interval cry it out, except instead if checking on him we pick him up and soothe him until calm. It doesn't feel as harsh and our LO didn't do well with straight CIO. So last night we did one minute increments. Cried for a minute, then we picked him up and rocked. Then 2 minutes & then rock etc. He got to 10 minutes (altogether it took 1.5 hours to get him down). And then......he slept through the night. He hasn't done that since he was tiny.
So tonight I didn't know what to expect. We increased increments by 2 minutes. He fell asleep after a total of 25 minutes. We'll see if he stays, but for now it seems to working. I can't believe it! I want to cry tears of joy!! Does this sound similar to your own sleep training experience? Will it get worse before it continues to get better?
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Yay!!! Glad night 2 went good! Night two was worse for us. So I hope he STTN for y'all!
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Congrats - love hearing success stories
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@smurfette: I've heard that can happen so I'm anticipating he might wake and we'll have to do it again. How was it worse for you? She took longer to go down or she woke up a bunch?
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@Mrs. Confetti: Honestly, we were just amazed that we even got him to fall asleep on his own last night. We felt like we've tried everything including cry it out. This plan is apparently the perfect compromise!
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@travellingbee: We sleep trained twice, so at 6 months she could put herself to sleep but would wake up and want to nurse to get herself back to sleep. I think she up three times the 2nd night. Verses twice the 1st night.
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@Smurfette: Gotcha. Well, we're prepared! We are traveling for Christmas so this should get really interesting.
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Congrats on small victories!
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That was a good start to the night. I really hope he STTN again and that he goes down easier and easier!
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Well he slept until 2... Now he's up.
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@travellingbee: how long did it take to go back to sleep? Still he went to sleep much easier he will get it!
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@Smurfette: 2 1/2 hours!!!! It was horrible! What a stubborn boy! ....and now we're all exhausted for Christmas Eve.
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@travellingbee: fingers crossed tonight is better!
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@travellingbee: Bumping this thread to see how it's going for you? We may be starting a similar plan with LO this weekend.
When you let LO cry for the 1 min, 2 min etc., are you in the room or do you leave, and then come back when the time is up to soothe?
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@Revel: Yes we stay in the room and pick him up at the 1 minute, 2 minute etc. intervals. We hold him in the glider until he calms down (which is very quickly) and then put him back down with a kiss. We got off track with traveling over the holidays, but we started again last night. Last night it took 1/2 hour to fall asleep and he slept for 5 1/2 straight hours before waking up-- It may not seem like much but our first goal is just to consolidate the first 6 hours of sleep (per our consultation) so if he wakes up before 1:45, we repeat the cio, but if he wakes up after, we can feed him, let him sleep with us or soothe him however. Eventually we will work on the whole night. Good luck to you. What method do you think you will try? I thought this was very helpful.
I love their webinars. Great info-- and the archived ones like this you can fast forward through. -
@travellingbee: Thank you for the video! I will watch it.
I'm not sure what method to use. We've had some success with her falling asleep in the crib with us in the room, so I was thinking of something like the sleep lady shuffle, but I'm never sure what to do when she cries - I kind of just end up picking her up when I feel like she's getting really escalated - so that's why your method stuck in my head because I'd like to have a plan and have a cap on the crying. I'm also comfortable keeping a night feeding or two like you describe - what I really want is that first stretch back - through like 1:30 or 2am. She was doing that regularly from 3 months to 5.5 months.
I'm really dreading the training but hoping that because she sometimes can put herself down in the crib, maybe she will take to the training.
Thanks again.
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@Revel: Yes that was our goal too. Actually, when we called Isis we didn't know what our goal was but she said that by this age, they really need that first consolidated chunk of sleep so we all decided that should be our goal. Eventually our longer term goal is to get him to the point where he will wake up once to eat but be able to go back to sleep in his crib (I don't even dare to hope he will sleep through the night!!) We also tried to do the sleep lady shuffle but he won't settle unless you hold him. So it didn't work for us. Good Luck!!!! This stuff is REALLY hard!
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An update to share- The last three nights have gotten so much easier at bedtime- 8 minutes of crying, 10 minutes, then last night, 2.5 minutes! Yay! So good that we started to tackle wake-ups. Ugh. Last night he woke at 12:30 and cried. At 1 am I fed him and then put him back down. He cried on and off until 3 am. Miserable. But I know that it worked with bedtime so we will keep at it. Bleary-eyed though we are.
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@travellingbee: Thanks for sharing your method. I'm going to try this with DS tonight/this weekend. He's been waking up every 1.5 hours the past 2-3 months and it's out of habit to comfort nurse. I'm one super exhausted momma! We've tried CIO and his cries just escalate and he'll cry all night with quick 10 minute naps to recoup then back at it again. So heartbreaking!
What time do you put your LO down for the night?
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@travellingbee: Yay!! Glad that bedtime has gotten easier. I hope the wakeups get better soon. Is he nursing to sleep right now?
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@Smurfette: He had been -and sleeping with us after wake ups. We are committed to him falling asleep on his own. I hope this starts to help.
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@travellingbee: It will!! He will get there. You know he can do it, heck he can STTN, he is just being a stubburn one right now!
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@Alivoo01: I think sometimes just having a plan is what it takes! Good luck!
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@travellingbee: When you pick him up, do you just rock him or do you nurse him as well?
And thanks!! I'll need it!! I have a tough lil cookie as well!
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@Alivoo01: Rock him. We picked a time that I wouldn't nurse before (1:45 but I did at 1 last night because he wouldn't settle) I had worked on getting used to being rocked to sleep rather than nursed before started this. (Trading down sleep associations is what Isis calls it)
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Hooray, congrats!! I just wanted to say that this is exactly what I do when DS refuses to go to sleep but is clearly overtired. He's usually good about gonig down at night, but sometimes if he doesn't nap during the day he'll scream at first. I never felt right just letting him cry, so I go in and pick him up and give him comfort until he calms down, then put him back down. I'll repeat it every few minutes until he's clearly losing steam. I also do this with naps since he HATES going down for naps, but he's more of a fighter during the day so we usually end up letting him cry - but it never lasts more than 5 minutes.
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@travellingbee: Gotcha! We currently nurse to sleep and it seems to be the only way he'll go to sleep right now. If he's not nursing, he doesn't want to be cradled for long and wants to be upright and playing. Any suggestions on how to break this habit?
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@Alivoo01: Yeah the isis trading down sleep associations webinar has info about how to do it. It's fairly straight forward. Basically you alternate between feeding and rocking over and over until he falls asleep in rocking mode.
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@travellingbee: Some how the video you attached just now showed up for me! I'm watching it now. Thanks!!
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I'm so glad it is going good!!
I think I'm going to try this method for naps. Just need to get a dark curtain for his new room and we'll be set.
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